Evaluating Behavioral Change During a Six-Week Pre-Kindergarten Intervention Experience. Research Project Number 5 of Project Head Start Research and Evaluation Center, Syracuse University Research Institute. Final Report, November 1, 1967.

Hayweiser, Lois; And Others

The objective of this study was the development of evaluation techniques and the assessment of these techniques when compared with standard procedures of the national Head Start program. Assessments of cognitive behavior, social behavior, and teachers' perceptions--as opposed to aides' perceptions--of children were made. The subjects were 33 children of broad socioeconomic levels. The following conclusions were drawn from the comparative and intercorrelational analyses: (1) a meaningful proportion of the variance in Stanford-Binet performance is related to performance on the "impulsivity measures" and suggests that impulsivity has deleterious effects on children despite the degree of their cognitive ability; (2) findings with Draw-a-Line and Walk-a-Line indicate no relationship between "fast" condition and the Stanford-Binet score; (3) increases in percent work responses are not especially related to increases in Stanford-Binet scores; and (4) teachers' perceptions of children's social adaptiveness is positively correlated with intelligence. Further analyses will be reported later. Future research should concentrate on identifying dimensions of variability and then concentrate on variations in programing for individual children. (DO)